Vin Diesel Is the Top-Grossing Actor of 2017
Dwayne Johnson and Gal Gadot complete 2017's top three
Photo by Rick Diamond/One Voice: Somos Live!/GettyAs 2017 well and truly winds down, it’s time to look back at the movie stars who ruled the box office with iron fists this year. First and foremost among them is Vin Diesel, whose $1.6 billion (!) in global ticket sales makes him the top-grossing actor of 2017, per Forbes.
The eighth entry in the Diesel-starring The Fast and the Furious franchise, the wildly lucrative The Fate of the Furious, had a whole lot to do with the actor’s massive year at the box office. The film made $1.2 billion worldwide (75 percent of Diesel’s 2017 total), good for the second-highest-grossing Fast film yet. xXx: The Return of Xander Cage, which was, apparently, a movie, also boosted Diesel’s total, with some $346 million in global gross, per Box Office Mojo.
For the record, we loved The Fate of the Furious. In his review of the film for Paste, Jason Rhode called it “the reason moving pictures exist. Not the only reason, just the main one: the glory of dynamic motion which involves the pulse and the heart.” Apparently, most of the planet agreed.
Just below Diesel on the list of 2017’s top-grossing thespians is none other than his Fate co-star Dwayne Johnson, who grossed “only” $1.5 billion this year. Fate’s $1.2 billion constitutes an even larger percentage of Johnson’s 2017 total, which was barely helped by the mega-flop that was Baywatch. That film made just $178 million or so worldwide, a mere drop in The Rock’s box-office bucket. Confusingly, Forbes notes that Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle, the Johnson-starring Jumanji sequel/reboot, now in theaters, will continue to add to his total, so perhaps we’ll soon be reporting that Johnson has unseated Diesel. Nothing means anything anymore.
Completing 2017’s top three is Wonder Woman herself, Gal Gadot, with a worldwide total of $1.4 billion. The Patty Jenkins-directed DC superhero(ine) film broke box-office records, raking in $822 million worldwide and becoming the highest-grossing live-action film ever directed by a woman. Jenkins will return to direct the sequel, so don’t be surprised to see Gadot reappear on this list in 2019. Zack Snyder’s Justice League, though both a significant critical and commercial disappointment, still made $647 million worldwide, boosting Gadot’s 2017 score further.
Last year’s top-grossing actors were Scarlett Johansson ($1.2 billion), Chris Evans and Robert Downey Jr. (tied with $1.15 billion each), Margot Robbie ($1.1 billion) and Amy Adams ($1.04 billion).
Find the full list of 2017’s top-grossing actors (via Forbes) below.
10. John Boyega ($815 million)
09. Chris Hemsworth ($845 million)
08. Chris Pratt ($864 million)
07. Tom Holland ($888 million)
06. Daisy Ridley ($1.08 billion)
05. Johnny Depp ($1.1 billion)
04. Emma Watson ($1.3 billion)
03. Gal Gadot ($1.4 billion)
02. Dwayne Johnson ($1.5 billion)
01. Vin Diesel ($1.6 billion)